White Authors, Ethnic Characters
by Racialicious special correspondent Latoya Peterson
On a lazy Sunday afternoon, I decided to give my overly analytical brain a break and delve into some light reading.
I love to read, and as a result of being willing to read anything and everything, I have picked up a few interesting habits.
Case in point being my affinity for paranormal romance novels. I don’t know what it is, but for some reason I love reading about the exploits of women with supernatural powers. After blowing through most of Kelley Armstrong’s Women of the OtherWorld Series, and waiting on the library to stock Kim Harrison’s For a Few Demons More, I was drawn to pick up MaryJanice Davidson’s work.
A bit fluffier (and more in line with the typical romance novel) than I am used to, I picked up the first few novels while smirking at the ditzy Valley Girl Vampire Queen Heroine. I was amused for three books, but was brought up short at the fourth. In fourth friend, the protagonist’s token black friend is riding in a car, and instigating a coversation about the n-word, much to the chagrin of the other white characters in the car.
“It’s just a word, I’m past it…” says the black character, before turning to a white character and saying, “You can call me it just once.” The white character stutters on the page.
I take a break from reading. I flip to the back flap to check out the author’s photo. Yup, just as I suspected…white. I continued reading the book to see how the situation was handled. Luckily, the conversation was dropped in favor of other pressing matters - like staking the undead.
Still, I felt a little shaken by the exchange. Can an author realistically portray someone of another ethnicity?
As a writer, I would say I hope so. Having cut my teeth working on short stories and screenplays (non-fiction writing didn’t happen until recently), my stories do not work in a mono-racial bubble. Some of my characters are black, some are Americanized Latino, some are mixed race-Asian, some are white…the character’s racial background and physical characteristics are chosen with care. The images that are afloat in my mind become realized on the page in the form they shaped. It is almost as if I do not choose a character’s ethnicity - it is simply there, one small part of the overall character. And while I do occasionally assign racial characteristics to my characters for social commentary purposes (i.e. the token white character in my screenplay, office friend to my two protagonists, largely serving as the sidekick/comic relief), for the most part, I let the story unfold as it will.
Some authors can write about different races with considerable aplomb. James Patterson, for instance. In all of the Alex Cross novels I have read (and I’ve read them all), I can only remember one instance that drew me out of the narrative of the story. In one of the earlier books, there is an extremely long passage (a paragraph or two) detailing the suffering that African-Americans experienced at the hands of whites in the segregated South. The passage was fitting, just went on a tad too long…long enough for me to think “Would Cross really spend this amount of time dwelling on dead and buried history when he is trying to track a psychopath before the trail grows cold?” Other than that, all the other novels have painted an excellent portrayal of Cross, Sampson, Nana, and the other characters that populate Patterson’s novels.
Unfortunately though, there are authors that misstep a bit, focusing more on race than the character. I remember reading a supernatural collection, including a story about a white woman being pulled into the world of ghost-hunting by a Mexican Shaman. The story was pretty wan, but what made it worse was the shaman’s character. A Latino stereotype in the making, he is described as “dirty” with “greasy” hair. For a protagonist, he is described as quite unappealing and rough. He also seems to come with five pre-programmed Spanish words - si, chicha, senora, lo siento, por favor - that he uses as punctuation to his sentences. At the end of the novel, the mousy heroine is swept away by his strange and exotic savagery.
Excuse me while I vomit.
[Note: Now, I could just be bitter. In the course of writing my screenplay, I realized that I had a major problem - my main character knows enough Spanish to fluctuate between Spanish and English. I know about as much Spanish as they teach on Sesame Street. When I told my college theatre teacher about the issue I was having, she told me that characters are often smarter than the writer giving them a voice, and that’s why good writers do research. Silly me - I should have just fallen back on rote Spanish stereotypes.]
Still, I tend to give writers the benefit of the doubt when they write across racial lines. Characterization, time period, and historical perspective all factor into play when I read and encounter harsh language or stereotypical depictions of characters.
Unfortunately, my broad range of acceptance still did not spare someone who formerly occupied the position of my favorite writer.
In the late ’90s, early ’00s, I discovered Stephen King. Though I hate horror as a genre, for some reason King’s novels gripped me. I read until 4 AM some mornings, too afraid to sleep while finishing the unabridged version of The Stand. I highly enjoyed King’s work.
Unfortunately, King tends to use the word nigger (in full, unabbreviated form). In his writing, it appears so much, it is almost as if it is another character. At first, through the Shining and other novels, I was able to write it off. Normally, the n-word appeared from the mouth of evil, as a way of breaking down a character.
Made sense. I still didn’t like it. I still kept reading.
I read more novels, until finally hitting upon a short story collection called Skeleton Crew. It was originally published in 1986 - yet, with King’s popularity surge following the Shining, Carrie, and Pet Sematary, it was reissued in hard copy, and sat on the new books shelf at the library.
It was that book that ended my reader relationship with Stephen King. Skeleton Crew contained one of my all time favorite stories from Stephen King - The Mist - and I devoured the other stories as quickly as the first. Then, I hit upon a story in the middle of the book. It has been a few years, so I can’t quite remember the actual story. I believe it was about a guy with a monkey doll - but I could be wrong.
Anyway, the narrator of the story is lamenting his fate, raging against life, debating things in his mind. Then, the narrator thought about something his uncle said. I forgot the context, or why it was said (maybe describing the doll?), but I remember the line. It stands out clearly in my mind to this day:
Grinning like a nigger.
I felt like the page rose up and slapped me in the face.
I remember trying to wrap my head around the usage. The narrator attributed the line to an uncle. Something that just popped into his mind. Something that, for story reasons, was completely unnecessary. The story could have been complete without that line being there. Its existence did not make any sense to me. It just seemed like…well, a way to use the word nigger.
I remember feeling vaguely betrayed. I put the book down after completing the story, and did not return to it.
I have not read another Stephen King book since then. Now, I am aware that Stephen King has legions of black fans, who do not take issue with his use of language. And I will point out that I have not read any of his new works, so I am not sure if his language has changed.
But for me, just me, that was the line in the sand.
So, to all the authors out there, penning tales and populating worlds, I must ask that you use some common sense. I do not believe in censoring works, characters, or thoughts. Racist characters happen, characters can behave in stereotypical ways, do whatever it is you need to do to convey your masterwork to the world.
However, if you are going to cross over into new territory (or take liberties with language/cultural customs), I implore you: Please tread lightly. Readers place their faith in the author, opening their mind to your world and looking forward to the experience you provide, believing -particularly with fiction - that it will be a pleasurable trip.
To have that trust betrayed hurts worse than you will ever know.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
Anonymous wrote:
I’m a dedicated lurker and first time commenter. Amazing post…I’ve never been a Stephen King fan for the exact reasons you posted…but have you ever read Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman? White author, black characters…all amazingly portrayed…I felt they kept true to the conception of race (I’m not sure how else to word that since I’m posting on a stream of consciousness/whim here) without creating stereotypes. That was just IMHO, though….
Posted 25 May 2007 at 7:33 am ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
Funny you should mention that Anonymous - I adore Neil Gaiman and have read everything by him. (I still haven’t gotten around to reading Fragile Things, but its on my bookshelf.
Posted 25 May 2007 at 9:32 am ¶
LM wrote:
Latoya, you treat this subject quite deftly. I also pay a lot of attention to this aspect of character portrayal in books (and other media, for that matter), and I’ve often laughed (or cringed) over things I “missed” in books I read first when I was much younger. Good example — in three decades of “Spenser” novels by Robert Parker (the basis of a TV show starring Robert Urich and Avery Brooks), the character “Hawk” is amazingly undeveloped, just a heroic, mysterious black man who both embodies and serves as exception to myriad stereotypes.
My favorite author is George Pelecanos, a descendant of Greek immigrants who grew up in your native Silver Spring, in large part because takes care to create full portrayals of characters on the streets of Chocolate City (D.C. for those who don’t know).
One of my least favorite, ironically, is James Patterson. I have picked up three or four of his novels (perhaps two of them with Alex Cross as the main character) but have not been able to get past 20 pages in any of them. I found almost all of his dialogue stilted and implausible. I know he has legions of readers; I suppose I owe the benefit of the doubt since I really haven’t given him a full shot. (Also haven’t seen more than a few minutes of any of the Morgan-Freeman-as-Alex-Cross movies.)
Haven’t read her stuff in a while, but to me the late Bebe Moore Campbell was exemplary for the way she crafted her characters. To me it was obvious that she’d “done the work.”
Bottom line — writing well is hard work. It frustrates me to see someone who’s otherwise painstaking in what they craft cut corners. It’s less surprising from utter hacks. But that’s art reflecting life, right?
Posted 25 May 2007 at 9:33 am ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
Hey LM -
I know George Pelecanos does some great writing on his own and on the Wire - I will make sure to pick up some of his stuff this summer.
I like Patterson, but I have only been able to get into the Cross series. I couldn’t speak for any of his other work, unfortunately. I like the settings and characters and the quickness of the plot. They are easy to read, easy to get lost in.
I also tend to like forensic/crime novels - one of the reasons I like the Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell as well. She’s given me a couple head scratch moments reading her work (unraveling dreds? wtf?) but nothing serious enough for me to stop reading…
Posted 25 May 2007 at 9:53 am ¶
Allen wrote:
I like science fiction novels, and that’s a hard genre to love if you are a black man. If black people are not completely absent from the future, they are seen as exotic others known for the amazing vitality of the their lives. It really bothers me that so many writers have visions of the future that do not include black people.
Posted 25 May 2007 at 10:15 am ¶
dnA wrote:
I’ve always appreciated that the Star Wars Comic Books and Video Games are populated by diverse characters.
The movies not so much though.
While I think in principle white authors should be able to write good black characters, in practice this doesn’t often happen. Neil Gaiman is a great example of when it works, Stephen King is a great example of when it doesn’t. While you didn’t mention it in your post, The Green Mile’s black man martyred for the redeption of the kindly white guards always bothered me.
Posted 25 May 2007 at 10:26 am ¶
LM wrote:
Allen, many writers have visions of their present that do not include black people. Just sayin’.
Posted 25 May 2007 at 10:30 am ¶
gandalf mantooth wrote:
I had a completely different reaction to the Hawk character in Parker’s books. Hawk was one of the main reasons I kept reading, and Parker’s books were the only detective novels I ever bothered to pick up. If some character both “embodies” and is an “execption” to stereotypes, that tends to make said character, if not complex, certainly not stereotypical. I could certainly describe myself as someone who both embodies and is an execption to stereotypes, as could many of us.
Posted 25 May 2007 at 10:42 am ¶
Amber wrote:
I remember reading a library book during my SF phase about the future of earth, and class/ race relations, and really liking it. I remeber the dust jacket blurb including the lines ” —racial equality—but some say it’s still a crime to be black on the streets—.” (— stand for bits I don’t remember.) One of the characters was a child prodigy who harnessed the power of static to kill/imortalize his aunt and uncle (I think).
I really wish I could remember more…
Posted 25 May 2007 at 11:21 am ¶
LM wrote:
Gandalf Mantooth, I actually agree with you, and to this day enjoy the “Spenser” novels (as I did the TV show). Parker doesn’t put a ton of time on internal character development anyway, though his outlines are fairly vivid. Spenser is a well-read, a great cook and a fantastic pugilist! I just think Parker treats Hawk’s character as even more of a human outlier than heroic Spenser or Spenser’s love, Susan Silverman. His writing about black people contains hints of liberal sympathy, about which I’m not complaining. But ultimately he keeps his distance… if it’s because he doesn’t think he can do better, well, I wish he wouldn’t be so humble. If it’s because he doesn’t care so much, well, I wish he would.
Agreed too that most of us embody and are exception to stereotypes. But we don’t have control over the stereotypes (they’re other people’s perceptions, after all) and aren’t solely the way we are because of the stereotypes (I hope). I just think that Parker writes Hawk solely in response to the character’s blackness, as blackness is perceived by larger white society. (We could go in all sorts of directions from there.)
Hawk as such a device in one novel, cool. But in multiple novels over the decades?
I’m not trying to crucify Parker. I just came to recognize over the years how limited he was in this area.
Posted 25 May 2007 at 11:36 am ¶
nadia wrote:
latoya, i have been really enjoying all the stuff you’ve been writing, especially the recent stuff about books. i was in the bookstore the other day and saw a young adult book about a young iranian woman (typical story: young woman leaves repressive homeland, comes to america for an arranged marriage, but falls in love with american white boy instead). and sure enough it was written by a white woman. i didn’t read the book, but this just seems like such a tired genre to me. the history of white women speaking for muslim/middle eastern women makes it touchy, and also uninteresting to me, because i feel like i’ve already memorized the story. the last sentence of her bio indicated that she was married to an iranian-american, which gave me pause for a second. does that make her any more intimately tied to the subject matter, such that she might give it a more fair and nuanced treatment? it could go either way. i guess i’d have to read the book!
Posted 25 May 2007 at 12:04 pm ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
Great comments!
I think that the danger in writing outside of your ethnicity is forgetting the human aspect of your characters. For many authors, race is a defining characteristic, so much so that it overshadows anything else.
It makes sense in a way - if you only have limited knowledge of a people, you see them as this “Exotic Other.” So you stop seeing them as people, and more as a sort of plot device. I think writers (self included!) reveal a lot about their own personal prejudices through the development of their characters.
I also wonder about publishers and publishing houses - there isn’t sci-fi or fantasy out in the mainstream that revolves around non-white characters…are publishers turning down minority driven plot lines because they think their readers will not relate?
Posted 25 May 2007 at 12:30 pm ¶
Terell wrote:
I wonder about this sort of thing from time to time myself. Lately I have been getting into comics again and wonder about the few black protagonists there are.
Allen I totally feel you on the scifi thing. If I see one more exotic dreadlock brotha in a scifi film, comic or tv show I am going to loose my mind.
dnA, I like the Legacy Series (haven’t read much else in Starwars) but the one brotha in that comic comes off as exotic too. Can you recommend any of there SW comics etc with more diversity?
-T
Posted 25 May 2007 at 1:32 pm ¶
gatamala wrote:
just seems like such a tired genre to me. the history of white women speaking for muslim/middle eastern women makes it touchy, and also uninteresting to me, because i feel like i’ve already memorized the story
You probably have memorized the story. East meets West…strict parents….tradition….blah blah blah. That’s the humanization aspect that’s missing. Non-whites embody themes, instead of complex people.
Try Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. That book literally had me cracking up and crying.
Posted 25 May 2007 at 1:39 pm ¶
gandalf mantooth wrote:
Parker on “Hawk.”
“But he came and said, ‘Give me a tip. Tell me something about Hawk so I can play him better.’ And I said, ‘Hawk’s magical.’ [magical negro?
GM] And I guess probably he is. He seems able to do whatever needs to be done. He seems able to understand whatever needs to be understood. And I find him fascinating, too, but his role will always be somewhat limited because I have to see him through Spenser’s eyes. I’m not black enough to see him through his own eyes, or from the inside out. ”
He’s answering your question, LM, in a way. He doesn’t think he can see inside him deeply enough because he’s a White man. That’s somewhat honorable as a writer to express a shortcoming, and there are a ton of White authors who wouldn’t see things that way.
Posted 25 May 2007 at 1:40 pm ¶
LM wrote:
Good find, GM… Parker gets points from me for candor. I still find it a bit strange that little changed over the decades. Again, I wish he wasn’t so “humble.”
There’s nothing wrong with the occasional archetype in anyone’s book or movie. The problem is when they’re so limited in number, type and scope that they become laughably — and sadly — easy to identify.
Posted 25 May 2007 at 2:17 pm ¶
Tereza wrote:
Latoya, thanks for this post. I just had a little adventure looking for children’s books focusing or at least including characters of color. I blogged about it here. It was really disheartening to see how few books for toddlers included characters of color. The international folktale section at the store included most “multicultural” books, but was the worst, filled with mostly Asian folktales retold by Anglos. The covers were so racist, I couldn’t even make myself open the books to see what was inside. See this cover, for example.
Posted 25 May 2007 at 2:20 pm ¶
Tereza wrote:
The other thing I wanted to comment on was the opressed Muslim woman storyline. I question movies and books coming out on that theme at this time for their soft-power and propaganda-like message. A lot of these works seem to play into this kind of manipulation: If Americans see this kind of stuff long and often enough, maybe they will become desensitized or even supportive of America’s agression in the middle East - you know what I mean? Remember this kind of propaganda around the time the U.S. went into Afghanistan? Then Iraq? I am sure some of these books are very important and genuine. I don’t want to lump them all together, I just question the publishers’ and even the writers’ motives in this political climate.
Posted 25 May 2007 at 2:31 pm ¶
tomi wrote:
Excellent post LaToya! I used to be a huge reader of romance novels but after a while I realized that I’d never read a romance novel with a black character and that almost all the books I had were written by white authors. I’m going through a change now and reading books by African and African-American authors which is a refreshing change. One thing that bugged me with historical romances was where the hero or the heroine was Native American, lots of stereotypes were played in some of the books and I remember a book I read had a short message which said that readers should not be offended because all the things in the book really happened, the book basically depicted Native Americans very badly and in the exotic light as well. I think it is better to read a book with ethnic characters that is written by an ethnic author. I also think it will be nice if people paid more attention to books written by Muslim women about their own experiences from their own point of view.
Posted 25 May 2007 at 4:10 pm ¶
Nanette wrote:
Great topic, Latoya.
Can an author realistically portray someone of another ethnicity?
I was just wondering this over the past couple of days. I’ve read some of the Tony Hillerman books and usually like them (some more than others), but all the time I am reading I keep in mind that it’s a white guy writing about Native American people and culture (mostly Navaho), and so I don’t just accept presentations as fact. Especially as I wouldn’t know the difference anyway. I do like that he presents Native Americans as real, current persons and not museum artifacts, though.
On the Stephen King thing - years ago I discovered him and went on a King kick too, reading Christine, Pet Semetary, It, and so on, one right after the other (with other authors in between), but then just stopped in the middle of one book, about 10 years ago, and never picked up another. No matter how good, or how scary or well plotted people have told me they were, I just haven’t touched one since.
I couldn’t have explained why, but now I am wondering if the repeated use of the N word may not have contributed to it. You sometimes don’t realize how things are affecting you, or what it is that is doing so, at the time.
Anyway, great post and some of the authors mentioned in the comments sound worth checking out too, so yay.
Posted 25 May 2007 at 5:33 pm ¶
nadia wrote:
gatemala, i have persepolis I & II, but i haven’t read the rest of her stuff. i’m looking forward to the animated film!
tereza, i had that 5 chinese brothers book as a kid! it always seemed really old to me, like vintage and outdated. but i loved it, and memorized the story (which wasn’t any less racist than the cover illustration).
the muslim/middle eastern woman was used as justification for colonialism, and since then it has always been the same thing with regards to western involvement in middle eastern countries–the whole telling a muslim or middle eastern womans story for her without paying attention to how she would tell her story has a history that has resulted in so much devastation and destruction in the middle east. so i guess it still comes down to RESEARCH, but i doubt i would ever read anything from this genre.
Posted 25 May 2007 at 10:58 pm ¶
Schizo wrote:
Amber, not sure if this was answered, but the book is Futureland by Walter Mosley, the author of the Easy Rawlings stories, the Simple stories and others.
I’ve read all but one of his works, (My local library is wonderful) and that story stands out
Also, King appeasrs to suffer from that “I’m your freind so I can say it cause I don’t mean it that way” mindset you find in alot of “liberal*” thinkers
*refers to their self-view, not to be confused with actual liberalism
Posted 26 May 2007 at 12:12 am ¶
Schizo wrote:
Amber, not sure if this was answered, but the book is Futureland by Walter Mosley, the author of the Easy Rawlings stories, the Simple stories and others.
I’ve read all but one of his works, (My local library is wonderful) and that story stands out
Also, King appears to suffer from that “I’m your friend so I can say it cause I don’t mean it that way” mindset you find in a few “liberal*” thinkers
*refers to their self-view, not to be confused with actual liberalism
Posted 26 May 2007 at 12:37 am ¶
Bianca Reagan wrote:
Latoya, the same thing happened to me with Jon Stewart. Ironically, the break didn’t happen until almost a year after Jon had said, “nigger, please,” as a poor attempt at humor on his show. Nor did it happen after his years of keeping the number of female correspondents to one per season.
No, to sever our relationship, Jon had to use an Indian man to denigrate Latinos during a sketch about fencing in Iraqi citizens. That’s when I stopped watching The Daily Show. I’m not personally a member of any of those ethnic groups, but I do know what it’s like to be exploited, mischaracterized and disrespected because of my color.
I don’t read Stephen King, mainly because I find him verbose. And because I didn’t like Thinner. That was a terrible movie.
Posted 26 May 2007 at 3:08 am ¶
Sonia wrote:
I am also a first time poster! Nice to meet you all. I really enjoyed this Latoya. I have been pondering the same questions for a long time and I really appreciate that someone decided to write on the challenges and nuances to character development in the context of race.
As far as Stephen King–it’s funny, because I don’t think I’ve ever read anything by him, but I knew he had some race issues from watching the Chappelle’s Show. They had a segment of “Ask a Black Dude” with Paul Mooney and I remember King asking something extremely uncomfortable (can’t remember what it was, sorry) into the camera. Anyway, it SEEMED that he wasn’t really joking, and Chappelle aired his question/racist commentary to expose him (Sacha Baron Cohen style).
(if someone knows more about this and thinks i have it wrong please correct me! this is just my inference)
Also with respects to the comments about white women writing about oppressed women in the third world–I think that’s a really interesting, albiet a different topic altogether. If any of you guys read Sepia Mutiny (a blog about South Asian issues) they recently brought this up–but it was more in the realm of South Asian, as opposed to white writers using this sort of character formula in order to pander to a white audience. It’s interesting how this East meets West formula is turning into a sort of genre on its own, and sort of troubling that it has the ability to sell like no other—presumably on the basis that it’s themes vindicate our inate feelings of western superiority.
Posted 26 May 2007 at 9:03 am ¶
Brad wrote:
Pretty cool post Latoya.
Have you ever read techno thrillers? I’m reading a Tom Clancy thriller called the Bear and the Dragon. I was a little shocked by the level of racist slurs directed at the Chinese characters in the story even though. However their is a Japanese-American spy in the book who seduces a secretary of one communist leaders into giving him info on the government and who also has had a past relationship with hispanic woman, So I’m not gonna say whether this is Clancy’s own views on Asians or whether he is just portraying how people talk about one another.
Posted 26 May 2007 at 10:13 pm ¶
June wrote:
Interesting article! I’m Metis from Vancouver (mixed First Nations and white) and I’ve been reading some science fiction by black writers in Canada. I heartily recommend Nalo Hopkinson, who is from Jamaica and lives in Toronto and Minister Faust, who is from Edmonton. His first novel, The Coyote Kings of the Space Age Bachelor Pad, is one of the most original books I’ve ever read. Hopkinson also co-edited So Long Been Dreaming: Post Colonial Science Fiction and Fantasy, which gained a glowing review from Samuel R. Delany. If you google both these authors, you’ll find their webpages.
For me, why read white writers writing about Aboriginal, Latino etc characters when there’s a plethora of amazing Aboriginal etc writers?
Posted 27 May 2007 at 1:08 pm ¶
belledame222 wrote:
Good post, and another Gaiman fan here.
King, I stopped reading somewhat later, mostly because he’d simply gotten unreadable, I thought. but, yeah, he’s got…issues. He also uses the “magical negro” a lot. And as for his portrayal of gay characters…and oy, the sex hangups. And his relationship to women is…complicated, but there’s a -lot- of misogyny as well as less obvious forms of sexism, some more conscious than others. He’s a reactionary in many ways, which he’s admitted to himself–if you ever read “Danse Macabre,” his take on the horror genre is/was that it’s basically a conservative genre, the “kill the monster” impulse.
I don’t think that -is- true about all horror, but in many ways it was an astute observation about the stuff he knew and loved and had influenced him.
The Calvinist in the woodpile is pretty clear, too. In fact there’s a book called “Maps of Heaven, Maps of Hell” that talks about the influence of Calvinism on American horror, from Johnathan Edwards to, yep, Stephen King.
and you know, you flip the “Left Behind” Books upside down and they’re basically “The Stand.” (oversimplification and probably unfair, certainly in terms of writing quality–no matter how bad I think King is now he’s still Langston Hughes compared to LaHaye, but still–the cosmology and the fascination with apocalypse is familiar)
Posted 27 May 2007 at 1:50 pm ¶
Angela wrote:
I’m dealing with this same issue within my own writing. The novel I am writing right now is set during the Boxer Rebellion and I am ever conscious of staying away from stereotypes found in novels written by people not of that ethnicity and/or heritage.
Heck, anyone that reads romances regularly know that the genre tends to fall back on stereotypes not only concerning people of color, but different nationalities(e.g. Scottish people–no distinction between Highlanders and Lowlanders, etc).
I think that anyone should walk a fine line between stereotypes even if it’s a white person who has never set foot below the Mason-Dixie line writing about Southerners, but the point of writing is to BE someone of some place you’ll probably never be. So I take care when I write and I try my best to treat my characters as though they truly are part of the culture/nationality/ethnic group they happen to be.
Posted 29 May 2007 at 11:31 am ¶
NancyP wrote:
Exhaustive RESEARCH into all aspects of society and expression is needed to write a decent historical novel. I’d say the same would be required whenever writing about a milieu unfamiliar to the writer. If you are writing about a scientist and have never been around scientists, observe some and read some memoirs. Race should get the same amount of observation and reading of fiction, letters, ephemera (newspapers, etc), histories, religious messages and cultures, and so on. That’s a lot of work, followed by a lot of imagination to ensure that you aren’t projecting your responses onto the character.
I agree that there is too little “SFF of color” in mainstream SF publishing, which tends toward the formulaic and uninteresting. Check out the Canadians, and check out small presses for the good stuff, both “SFF of color” and stylistically experimental fiction. Curiously, Delaney was my introduction to gay male sensibility in fiction.
Posted 30 May 2007 at 12:55 pm ¶
brad wrote:
Stephen King is horrible when it comes to African-Americans. He’s virtually the creator of the “magical Negro”:
1)The Shining
2)The Green Mile
–I hate that movie; Michael Clark Duncan playing the stereotypical, big dumb black man who magically cures whites. Even worse, he’s forced to cure them. Can you really believe the scene where he is found by a posse of white Southerners with the bodies of two little white girls in the 1930s and lives to be convicted and sentenced?
3) The Stand
King is just awful.
James Patterson, however, does a realistic job with his Alex Cross novels. He paints a picture of an intelligent, loving father, sexual, heroic black man.
Posted 31 May 2007 at 12:03 am ¶
Myra wrote:
Ok Anonymous…absolutely love Anansi Boys! Great choice of an author who writes about folks who happen to be brown, but being brown isn’t the point of the story. Gaiman is absolutely fabulous.
Posted 31 May 2007 at 12:04 am ¶
Really wrote:
I noticed the MaryJanice Davidson thing, she keeps mentioning and pointing out the character’s race, it bugs me enough that I have stopped reading her books
Posted 03 Jun 2007 at 5:36 pm ¶
Mogs wrote:
the people who comment on the absence of black people in sci-fi have an excellent point… i guess maybe when people try to write about the future, they are dealing with so much “uncharted territory” just in the setting that they automatically stick with what’s most familiar in terms of characterization, but that’s still no excuse for the inaccuracy/thought-lessnes/oversight…
Posted 12 Jun 2007 at 9:53 pm ¶